There was no 'beware of hormones or crazy emotions'
by MissKluck
Summary: Day 4 of ssmonth. Sasuke realizes he's in love, but he doesn't know what to do. Warning: character death.


Post war. Yeah, I went down there again. Funnily enough this was supposed to be fluffy, but then that didn't happen. Oh well.

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto

**There was no 'beware of hormones or crazy emotions'**

Sasuke Uchiha was in love and he had no idea what to do. Heck he didn't even know much about friendship and 'normal' relationship, how was he supposed to know about love? He was skilled in practically everything else; he was a skilled combat, a decent cook, knew his way around and was generally viewed as one of the best shinobi. He had knowledge far exceeding his years and on top of that he was the famous, last Uchiha. But love? First growing up in the Uchiha clan and then suffering traumatic experiences over and over again as a child and into his late teens, Sasuke Uchiha had no clear opinion on what love actually was.

And then it had just happened. There was no warning, no 'beware of hormones or crazy emotions' and certainly no explanation about the thing called love. It had just started in the small, with stares, him noticing certain things for the first time, like how beautifully her hair bobbed when she walked or how her eyes sparkled when she smiled at him. How her eyelids seemed to not be black or brown but rather a dark, dark pink colour and how, when he had a crappy day remembering his past mistakes as he often did, her smile was the first thing to come to mind, her gentle voice calling his name, calling him back into the light.

After a while of noticing these things and always getting irritated with himself afterwards because he did, _the feeling_ started to show up. It could just be a random night Naruto had dragged them out to be together as team 7, but each time he saw her he would always get this weird, almost fluttery feeling in his stomach. He tried to pass it off as best as he could, using every possible excuse he could find for it. Maybe he was coming down with an illness or maybe he was getting allergic to something, but they all just seemed more and more ridiculous the more he thought about them. Like why would he suddenly be allergic only when Sakura popped up?

The feeling would get stronger and stronger the more time he spent with her, making him often feel weird when he was with her and slightly lonely when they had to part ways. It wasn't that they saw much of each other, quite the contrary actually with all the fuss over rebuilding the village after the war, Sakura working and working at the hospital and him on his probation, but what he saw of her was enough. When they were together they would often talk, mostly because of their blonde teammate, but they never ended up talking about what really bugged them both. Sasuke knew they'd have to talk about it sooner or later, but he just wasn't ready yet. He just wasn't ready to feel rejection once again.

And so, the days and weeks went by and Sasuke felt his mind be taken more and more over by thoughts about Sakura. How she was, where she was, what she was doing and the like. Just randomly he would find himself losing focus in the middle of his training because his thoughts wandered to her and when he would wake sweaty at night, having had another nightmare, thoughts of her would immediately pop into his mind. All of this made Sasuke more and more frustrated, taking it to the point that he would avoid Sakura whenever he'd see her. And if he happened to be forced to be near her or spend time with her, he would start to act all cold and indifferent again because he honestly had no idea what to think about her anymore.

Sasuke wanted to talk to her, to say something, to not hurt her again by ignoring her. But each time he just remembered all the wrong things he'd done, all the people he'd hurt and he found that he didn't want another precious person hurt because of him. On the day he finally worked up his courage, and pride, to go and talk to Sakura, she was nowhere to be found. He searched the entire village, frantically wondering about where the heck his pink-haired teammate could be, and ended up at the hokage's office. There, he met a worried Tsunade who revealed to him that while he had been going around being nervous about what to say and do, Sakura had gone out on a short, normally non-dangerous mission, but she had still not returned.

He demanded to go out and search for her, send a team to locate her, but since they were already so short on shinobi after the war and she hadn't been gone long enough, no one was sent out. Stumbling through the village gates later that day was a wounded Sakura, bleeding from several large wounds and scratches. Sasuke had been on his way home when he found her, huddled over a bench, _the bench_, as she tried to catch her breath while not couching up too much blood. He had immediately dropped his shopping bags with fresh tomatoes and other groceries, rushing to her side as Sakura trembled, almost doubling over on her legs.

Sasuke had managed to catch her before she fell and hit her head against the hard bench. He had carefully cradled her up and onto the bench where he carefully laid her down. The gate guards had already rushed off to find Tsunade or any other available medic to help Sakura, but it was already too late. Lying on the lap of Sasuke Uchiha, Sakura Haruno had thanked him quietly. When the shocked boy had asked what for, she had explained that she thanked him for letting her love him, even if he never returned the feelings. She had revealed that she still loved him despite all, tearfully spluttered out how much she regretted her actions towards him and begged for forgiveness while the blood and tears slowly seeped out of her.

The Uchiha himself had started to tear up at this, pushing down his pride to confess that he didn't really blame her anymore, that he understood why she had done it. He too had asked for forgiveness and pleaded with her not to leave as he didn't want another precious person to disappear from his life. Desperately he had confessed to the feelings that had been building up inside him, making him act as rudely and weirdly as he had towards her the last weeks. And there, on a bench in the quiet outskirts of Konoha, finally kissing the lips of the girl he'd come to love, Sasuke Uchiha again pondered about love and how there was no warning love was going to be so painful and powerfully sad.


End file.
